Lady Gaga goes gaga over Ubuntu

After enthralling the techies at Google last week, Lady Gaga has given her geek fans another reason to smile. In a press conference this Monday, the Grammy award-winning singer confessed that she is an avid fan of Ubuntu, the Linux-based operating system. Since then, Ubuntu has seen a massive surge in its popularity; particularly among teenagers.

When asked if she was a PC or a Mac, the ultra glamorous pop star replied “Well you know, I'm neither into PCs or Macs, first of all. Secondly, I don't like either of them; it's like everybody uses them these days. I'm more into this thing called Ubuntu. Two months ago, a buddy of mine told me to use it to avoid getting hacked, and I've loved it since then. It's really fun to use!”

To another reporter asking if there was any particular reason for choosing Ubuntu, she responded, “I love Ubuntu because it's unique, it's so like me and my little monsters – we're different, but we're awesome!“. Afterwards, when asked about her thoughts on the Free and Open Source Software (FOSS) philosophy, she said “It's great when things are free. I think it kinda really helps people who can't buy computers on their own.. I'd love to see Apple doing something like that … they make such great products but not everyone can buy them”.

Fedora 15 vs. Ubuntu 11.04: The Battle for Linux Desktop Supremacy

In a few weeks from now, latest versions from two of the finest Linux distributions will be unleashed, bringing along some major changes to the traditional desktop. Ubuntu 11.04 is expected to be released this coming April 28, while Fedora 15 will be out on May 24, 2011. The two will battle it out for Linux desktop supremacy.

What makes these editions special is the fact that both distributions will be offering two completely new user interfaces. Here is a detailed look at how these two veteran distros stack up against each other.

The Desktop:

How to Create an Android Tablet that Can Beat the iPad

We can't deny the fact that the iPad is currently the best tablet computer available. Although a good number of leading manufacturers have already come up with their own tablets, it seems like it is hard to topple Apple’s baby.

Android 3.0 Honeycomb may have significantly boosted many of the iPad-competitors' chance of succeeding, but a lot of skeptics don't think that it is compelling enough to attract a wide range of consumers. And now that Apple has stepped up its game by releasing the more refined and still drool-worthy iPad 2 with equally drool-worthy applications such as GarageBand and iMovie, Android-based tablets are struggling to keep up.

Is it possible to beat the iPad? How do we create an iPad-slaying Android-based tablet computer?

Which do you think is the best Relational Database Management System for Linux?

Which do you think is the best Relational Database Management System for Linux? - After featuring here some of the best Relational Database Management System (RDBMS) for Linux (5 of the Best Relational Database Management System for Linux, 5 (More) Relational Database Management System for Linux), it is time once again to ask for our readers' participation.

So for those of you who have used a few of the RDBMS that we have previously mentioned, you may cast your votes below:

Sad Day at Linux Today

If you are a frequent visitor of the popular Linux news aggregator site Linux Today, you may have noticed the lack of updates during the last few days. Upon checking it this morning, it already has a couple of posts and one of which is an "Editor's Note". It has been my favorite section of the site but I noticed something different this time. –Linux Today’s long-standing Senior Managing Editor, Carla Schroder, did not write the post.

In her place is Michael Hall, a former Managing Editor of LT. Hall informed everyone that Carla no longer works for the site and for its parent company, but gave no further comments as to why she was laid off. However, he provided us a link to a recent post by Carla at LXer.

New Samsung Galaxy Tab Android Tablets Ready to Stop the iPad 2 Madness

Samsung recently unleashed not one but two Android tablet computers that have the potential to derail the iPad 2 train. The two new tablets, simply called Galaxy Tab 8.9 and Galaxy Tab 10.1 are loaded with exciting features that could give Apple a run for its money.

At 8.6 millimeters (.33 inches) thin, the Samsung Galaxy Tab 8.9 and 10.1 are considered as the world's thinnest mobile tablets beating the iPad 2 by just a hairline in terms of slimness. They are also very light, weighing only around 470 grams and 595 grams respectively.

Load Balancing your JBoss App Servers with Apache

If you have your web application deployed on an application server and you need it to be online with a good uptime you should know that applications servers are not always very reliable. That's why it is a good idea to run two or more application servers and load balance them so that you can share the load, thereby reducing the dependence on one server and also handling the load better.

A single instance of the Apache web server can handle a large number of simple requests for files to be served quite well. However, a single instance of an application server such as JBoss can handle far fewer requests for applications to be run. There's a big difference between just handing someone a piece of data and having to work out something complicated to answer a question. So we'll use the Apache web server as a load balancer between two instances of JBoss, running the same application.

5 (More) Relational Database Management System for Linux

5 (More) Relational Database Management System for Linux: We have already featured here some of the best relational database management system (RDBMS) for Linux. However, there are other excellent RDBMS that we have not yet mentioned. So today, we are giving you another round of some of the best relational database management system for Linux.

Firebird

Firebird is an open source relational database management system that offers superb concurrency, high performance, and powerful language support for stored procedures and triggers. It provides many ANSI SQL-99 features and has a complete set of command line utilities that enable users to make databases, recover database statistics, execute SQL commands and scripts, run backups and restores, and more. Firebird 2.5 is the most recent stable version, which features enhanced multithreading, regular expression syntax, and the ability to query remote databases. Version 3.0 is already under development and is anticipated to support stored procedures in languages such as Java and C++, and SQL window functions that restrict query results.

Highly Useful Resources for Android App Development

The current global demand for mobile apps can only mean booming business for developers. The Android and iOS platforms are currently the dominant platforms in this sector and developers are busy coming up with the next 'big apps' to hit the market.

Being new to mobile app development can be a challenging affair if you don't have previous experiences in this field. Furthermore, every platform is unique and requires some patience to learn and get your way around.

For Android, a good number of tools have already proved to produce quality apps and it would be worthwhile getting a little background information on some of these tools.

Why the Linux Desktop is Still Not #Winning

Let's face it; Linux's chance of winning the desktop war is now slimmer than ever. Mobile devices like tablet computers and smartphones have started to pull a lot of people away from using traditional PCs. But I think we shouldn't blame the fate of the Linux desktop solely on these devices because personal computers are far from being irrelevant and is still preferred by many, including myself, for getting things done. So why do I think Linux is still not winning in the desktop space?

Before I'll answer that question, I would like to explain that winning doesn't necessarily mean beating Windows and Mac in terms of market share. We all know that those two tech titans have all the money in the world to get what they want. For me, the Linux desktop is already winning if it could reasonably increase its usage share. I know it is quite hard to measure the desktop market share accurately, but the way I see it, Linux is moving at a very slow pace.

Social Media Apps on the Android Platform

Over the past 5 years, social media has changed the landscape of the Internet and the way we communicate. The need to connect with friends and family and maintain social networks on the web has impacted almost every user who logs on to the Internet today. The Android platform has itself been at the forefront in bringing social media to the hands of users by integrating their mobile devices with popular social media sites and enabling them to join their social networks on the go. Android users connect to the ever-buzzing social networks more conveniently and easily than ever before. This is made possible by the presence of creative apps on Android markets making the choice on which apps are best at accessing one's favorite social media network a tasking affair.

Facebook for Android App

Facebook is by far the largest social network in the globe, having recently surpassed 500 million active users. It therefore comes as no surprise that the official Facebook for Android app is among the most popular Android apps out there. The app enables real time chat, messaging, access to news feeds, access to one's Facebook profile and almost everything else the average Facebook user would access from their PC's web browser. Those who've used earlier releases of the app will have noticed that every release gets better and better in terms of performance and features offered. The chat facility, for instance, was an addition that wasn't available in previous releases but is now present. Facebook itself is constantly growing and new features like 'Facebook Places' are being rolled out in phases.

Quick and Easy Way to Mount an FTP Location on Your Local Linux Box

If you transfer files to an FTP server frequently using your Linux computer, there is a cool trick you can perform to make things a bit easier for yourself. Using the free tool "curlftpfs" you can easily mount this remote FTP location as a local drive and drag and drop files and folders to it to upload them. The steps involved are pretty straightforward and take just a few minutes. Let's look at how to do this.

If you are using Ubuntu like me, you need to first install curlftpfs before you can begin using it. To install it, execute the command "# sudo apt-get install curlftpfs". On other Linux distributions the step involved in installing curlftpfs may not be too different. Check your distribution's application installer for more information on it.

5 Productivity-Enhancing Android Apps

5 Productivity-Enhancing Android Apps: With the number of apps available on the Android market growing by the minute, selections of apps have steadily proved to be among the most productive Android apps. These apps, already in use by millions of Android users are simply must-have apps.

Documents To Go 2.0

One can hardly mention the word productivity without having to think about an Office Suite. Being able to access documents while on the move is a big bonus in today’s fast paced society. Documents To Go 2.0 lets you do exactly that and is, by far, the Office Suite of choice for Android devices. The app lets users do all their word processing, spreadsheet manipulation, slideshows and PDF viewing on their Android devices. Basically, users of the app can use their Android devices to do everything a normal PC would do in Microsoft Office, Open Office or any other serious office suite.

Mozilla Firefox 4 "RC1" is Now Available for Download

The stable version of Mozilla Firefox 4.0 is coming real soon. For those of you who can't wait, the first RC (Release Candidate) version of Firefox 4 is now available for download. Linux users can download Firefox 4.0 RC1 directly from HERE. If using Windows, you may get it fromHERE, and if you are a Mac user, download it from HERE.

Get Cracking with Cron

Cron is an age-old UNIX program that allows you to schedule your tasks. The command line application that ships with just about every flavor of Linux can be used to schedule things such as backups, syncing your system clock, and other tasks. If you are a system administrator or maintain a Linux server, cron can be your new best friend. The great thing about it is that it is both flexible yet quite easy to setup and use. Let's take a look at what's under the hood of this wonderful tool and how you can use it to make your life easier.

The cron application consists of a few files. There's the binary, which usually sits in your default system path. Then there are a few configuration files such as /etc/contab where you can configure your tasks, /usr/lib/cron/cron.allow and /usr/lib/cron/cron.deny where you can assign which items can access cron and which cannot. For most part, you can just stick to using the /etc/crontab file to schedule tasks. There are also some folders under the /etc directory called cron.hourly, cron.daily, cron.weekly and cron.monthly where you can place your executable scripts to have them run at the said times.

Android vs. iOS: A Developer's Perspective

Recent statistics estimate that 300,000 Android devices are being activated everyday. This increasingly growing number of Android users is perhaps the biggest motivation to Android app developers as it provides them with one of the widest markets for users to access their apps. The steady adoption of Android by device manufacturers that produce tablet computers, smartphones, and other gadgets serve as an assurance that the platform is here to stay and developers can prepare for greener pastures in the near future.

As a developer on any platform, you want to develop your applications at the lowest cost, utilizing free resources as often as you can. The Android platform, unlike iOS, is an open source platform and this fact has made developers take a liking to the Android platform, as compared to the iOS platform. Google develops Android and the company has taken huge steps in open-sourcing the technology and knowledge resources developers need to build apps on their platform. This includes Android documentation, which is very extensive and exposes developers to nearly everything. Unlike the iOS documentation that hides important aspects from developers. Furthermore, Android code is Java based, meaning the millions of already existing Java programmers have an easy time adopting the platform. These factors, coupled with the online support that most open source technology enjoys, makes the Android development learning curve much shorter than that of an iOS developer.

5 of the Best Relational Database Management System for Linux

A Database Management System (DBMS) is described as a set of computer programs that manages the creation, maintenance, and administration of a database. It is a system software package that supports the use of unified collection of data records and files known as databases. A DBMS could utilize any of a variety of database models, such as the network model or relational model.

A relational database management system (RDBMS) is a DBMS in which data is stored in the form of tables, and the relationship among the data is stored in the form of tables as well. Nowadays, majority of popular commercial and open-source databases are based on the relational database model.

For those of you who are interested, I have here a list of some of the best Relational Database Management System (RDBMS) for Linux (in no particular order):